China considers establishment of a trans-regional environmental protection agency

Almaty. May 26. Silkroadnews – China considers an option to establish a pilot trans-regional environmental protection agency with a unified system of planning, standards, assessment, monitoring and enforcement in Beijing and neighboring Tianjin and Hebei Province, Xinhua news agency reported.
The problem of air pollution in the Chinese capital and surrounding regions was a subject of agenda at the meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms held the day before. The participants of the meeting proposed to establish a trans-regional agency under the direct supervision of China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection.
“Environment components such as water and air are easily transmissible, thus, pollution and environmental damage often cover several administrative units. This creates a need for the trans-regional environmental department”, Minister of Environmental Protection Chen Jining said.
To date the Ministry of Environmental Protection has established six environmental control centers throughout the country to monitor and promote environmental protection at the local level.
“The centers are flexible coordinating mechanisms, while the trans-regional agency should become a strong executive body able to independently approve, evaluate, verify and implement environmental programs”, head of the Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy under the Ministry of Environmental Protection Xia Guang said.
In his opinion, this body will be able to play an important role for more effective execution of state orders through compulsory responsibility for local governments and companies for environmental protection and through the direct implementation of national environmental programs at the local level.